Men of Iron
by imortis
Summary: Ranmas been shot! The Tendo and Saotome family's turn their backs on him! Ryouga is Akanes new fiancee! Who does Ranma know that might be able to help him out of this? And what does it have to do with a certain iron clad hero?


soun burst through the emergency room door at a dead run and was almost bowled over by akanes hystarical wailing as she jumped into his arms. he struggled to deal with her as genma and nodoka went to the desk to ask for the where abouts of their son "oh daddy they shot ranma!!" she balled squeezing him so hard his face turned blue.

nodoka came back looking grim "they say ranmas still in surgery." she whispered to those that had come with them,  
nabiki tried to look cool and aloof but couldn't keep a trimble out of her lip as the doctor came out to meet them "saotome family?" he asked softly. the saotomes and the tendos nodded "we're all family here sir."

he nodded clearing his throat as he looked at the file, it was easier that way "we removed forty bullets from mister saotomes back, all but three of them missed everything vital." he said starting off, happy the hystarical girl had stopped wailing. he inhaled, time for the bad part "two of the bullets traveled through his heart and lodged in his breast bone, we were able to remove them, but extensive damage was done to the left ventrical...."

he sighed looking at them sadly "i understand from his file that he is a martial artist of no small skill.... but.... he will be lucky to play sports without his heart forcing him to stop. i'm sorry, but with the damage..... its still too soon after surgery, but we are confident he will regain the use of his left leg." he tried to make it look like they were lucky, but from the horror on all their faces this was the worst news.

"when can we see him?" ukyo asked softly. the doctor looked down "hes still too weak for visitors of any kind. come back tomarrow, maybe he will be strong enough then." he looked pitying. akane shook her head "i'm going no where. hes like this because of me." ukyo hissed at her the same time shampoo did "explain that quickly tendo!" ukyo snarled raising her spatula. nodoka glared at the two girls "don't you dare start a fight in here!!" she screamed at them in anger. they backed away, cologne smirked at the two "please tell us what happened akane." she said soothingly. akane wiped her eyes.

she sat down "we had gone into the city... a school friend had moved and we went to help move them in. afterward we went to a movie.... we were walking to the train station when this guy came up behind me and squeezed my breast, i broke his nose. ranma beat up the three friends that had been with the guy. he pulled a machine gun out of his coat and pointed it at me."

akane felt new tears well up in her eyes "ranma saw it and jumped in the way, pulling me in tight so none of them would hit me, after the gun was empty ranma broke the mans arms and beat him with it until the cops pulled him off, then he colapsed, and they took us here. it was horrible, half his face was covered in blood and you couldsee where the bullet had bounced off his jaw."

they left her alone when she broke down, too horrified to press her for more details. nodoka broke down and hugged akane tightly and wailed with her, both of them clutching at each other with a death grip. genma cleared his throat "i think everyone but family should leave. tendo, we'll call if theres any change."

he looked up and glared at the amazons "please leave, you have no business with my son, or is it a habit of your tribe to think well of the amazon that chases a cripple!?" he said heaping insult on his words. "how dare you.." cologne started but he cut her off by spitting in the ashtray next to him "you heard the doctor old woman, my son is dead to the martial arts world, his only future is a desk job."

she stood firm "it doesn't matter, even a cripple can train others." she hissed. genma sighed "dear, i think maybe... it is time we carried through with our oath of seppuku. i would rather the saotome school die then let those that hurt our son so much reap him of family secrets and toss him away,  
because thats what amazons do, they get rid of the male that has no other use to the tribe." he glared at the old woman "oh ya, i know your laws, they would pressure you within a year to kill him to end the drain he would put on the village."

nodoka nodded "i agree love.... my son is dead to the school, on our family honor he will not train anyone of chinese amazon desent in the family art. this i declair as the matriarch of my clan." she dared the old woman to challange her "as his mother it is my right to deny you his knowledge knowing all the things you did to him. he will never, in his life, be a part of, join or teach even a finger move to an amazon of china. on our family honor i sware this. because of your interference my family may never live past ranma, he would have been married now and be well on his way to giving us grandchildren. this is not china,  
your laws are not recognized here, i do not recognize your claim to my son, it was incurred on japanese soil, outside the bondries of amazon rule, therefore under the domain of japanese law, saotome clan law."

the two stared at each other for the next forty minutes,  
neither of them willing to back down, cologne pissed because she would dare do this and nodoka pissed that cologne would dare force her son. "i challange your honor." cologne hissed. nodoka sniffed "i refuse, you can not challange our honor because you have no power in japan, you are forigners in our land, you are not an equal. if you were a house of japan we would be forced to take the challange.  
since i refused your challange, you would dishonor the whole of the amazon nation by attacking, then, no amazon will be seen as anything but an honorless killer to be ignored."

she looked at happosai who was calmly smoking his pipe in the corner "is that not true letch." he chuckled softly looking down "your whole tribe would hold the same status that i hold in the eyes of your people. for starters your licence to run or operate a dinning establishment would be revoked since the japanese government frowns on illegal aliens harming japanese citizens. after that you will be deported and the chinese government will be informed that the nations of amazon were banned from entering japan for any reason as a way to thumb their noses at the red army."

nodoka nodded "and since, as much as i hate the idea,  
happosai is a part of our schools family the same as tendo,  
you would be dishonoring him by interfering in what is his world." even happosai blinked at that and started chuckling "well i'll be damned, shes right, as the master of the anything goes school i have the right to forbid you from taking ranma anywhere, and if you challange my decision i will take a trip to your village and harry them until they order that you to leave us in peace, might do that anyways,  
haven't seen the new crop of young panties you amazons raised since i was last there!" he cackled at the rage in colognes face and leered holding up a plastic bag with a very old pair of panties "i still have a pair of your panties cologne-chan."

akane came into the hospital room looking downcast, like the weight of the world was on her shoulders. she sat down in the chair next to the bed and sighed looking miserable "i'm sorry i haven't come to see you lately ranma, but things have been going so fast in the past few days that i fell asleep almost the instant i got to my room."

she felt tears come to her eyes "happosai and our fathers.  
made ryoga the heir to the anything goes school.... and.  
he.... he said that the only way..... he would.. do it, was if.... if i renounced my betrothal to you and become his fiancee." she burst out crying on the sheet that covered his hand "....n... n.... no...."

she jerked up hearing it and stared wide eyed at ranma, his features weren't slack anymore, his face was filled with rage! "... no.... no one.... is... gonna... take you.... from me!" he hissed struggling to sit up and acomplished it after a little pain. he breathed shallowly through gritted teeth "no one... is taking you from me!!" he yelled pulling at the wires hanging off him. akane forced him back down to the bed, a feat she found easy since he was rather weak. ranma panted softly at her then looked at the doctor that came into the room "i need a phone."

after a little arguing and ranma rolling onto the floor they got him a phone after he agreed to stay there. he sighed settling back into the sheets and looked at akane "is my wallet anywhere around here?" he asked softly. she nodded and reached into her pants, he realized were his, along with his shirt, and handed him his wallet "i miss you, it hurt less wearing your things, although, they've moved ryoga into your room." ranma nodded and took the phone from the doctor "thankyou, do you know when my family is going to visit?"

he shook his head "they usually come once a week, want me to call them?" he asked. ranma shook his head "they have their own lives to lead, i can wait. thanks." after the doctor left he opened the wallet and unthreaded the outer part and pulled a weathered card out and started dialing as akane peeked at it "stark enterprizes."

ranma nodded "hello, my name is saotome ranma, i was told to call this number if i ever needed help, our friend in iron said i owed him one." he said weakly. the woman on the other end of the line paused "just one minute." akane blinked at the english ranma was speaking, better then she did as a matter of fact. "hello?" another woman asked. he cleared his throat "hi, i was told by a friend of mine to call this number if i ever needed his help, i did him a favor a year ago."

the woman spoke softly in the back ground "what was this favor?" she asked and he heard a click "i was in china at the time, i came across a metal clad warrior that was suffering from damaged systems, i hid him and distracted a rather green skinned china man long enough for his red haired friend and the black clad metal warrior to come for him. he told me that if i ever needed help, to call this number."

the woman hummed softly "yes, i remember, the polite japanese boy with the pig tail and the amazing skill with energy weapons." she agreed. ranma nodded "yes. i'm on the verge of losing everything important to me and am in need of a savior." she turned away from the phone and this time he heard a mans voice "what do you need son?" he asked softly.  
ranma enhaled shakily "i was shot defending my fiancee from a street thug, my family has written me off because the doctors say my heart can never be strong enough now to allow me to even do gentle sports. i woke up from a coma today,  
and find out they chose my enemy and rival to take my place as my family's heir, i also found out, they forced my fiancee to renounce our engagement and become engaged to the new heir as a condition of his agreeing."

he breathed deeply a few times "i don't want to be a bother,  
but i need help to keep from losing my love and my honor"  
he said his voice cracking at the last. the man murmured softly in simpathy "i think i can help you, iron man owes you his life, the least i can do is help you, and maybe, we can help with your heart problem too. where are you?"

ranma was walking later that night, able to perform a fast walk without breaking out in a sweat. he looked at akane after she took him back to his room "akane, i love you,  
please don't leave me." he pleaded softly catching her hand in his when she started collecting her stuff to go. he looked scared "if i'm correct they plan on taking me back with them, please, come with me." he cried softly clutching her hand to the side of his face not bandaged. she sniffed hugging him to her and cried on his shoulder "yes, please don't leave me."

ranma woke up a few hours after he had went to bed to blink at the man and the woman that came into the room silently. he blinked at them for a minute and smiled slightly "hello, i haven't seen you since that night on the mountain sir."he said softly. he jumped and looked around for a minute "what do you mean?" he asked softly. ranma looked comforting "your left hand, the left arm of your armor had been damaged, you have a scar on your left hand."

the man looked shocked at the woman "you haven't told anyone?" he asked softly. ranma blinked "who am i to tell? i just noticed, and it would be dishonorable to tell something like that, and in your line of work, i would rather lose my arm then give information of you to anyone." he looked hearing a stirring and smiled at akane "ranma?" she murmured softly, still asleep. ranma patted her cheek, she was sleeping on his chest "its ok love, they came to help."

the woman smiled sitting down "that we did. we found out that you pummeled the man that shot you half to death before sucoming." she chuckled. he nodded looking grim "he dared pull a gun on akane." he looked at the man "i'm yours sir,  
as long as you can get us away from our family i'm willing to do anything you want."

the man smiled gently "nothing that drastic is needed, but if your willing, we would like to take you back with us, i myself have a heart problem and i think i may be able to help you. its the least i can do for what you did for me"  
ranma reached out and gripped the mans hand "then you truely are our saviors."

ranma blinked looking about and cursed shoving akane gently against the wall on the other side of the doors seeing someone "its ryoga, don't come out until i tell you." he whispered. she nodded darting into one of the rooms closest to them. ranma leaned into his chair "be careful, you could hit him with a mack truck and he would laugh at you." he hissed to the two of them in all seriousness as ryoga snarled coming over to him.

"where is she ranma!?" he snarled picking up ranmas chair and threw it at the wall. ranma gasped jumping away to fall to a knee "hello ryoga, i guess beating on women and old people isn't enough, now you got to come beat on cripples." he gasped clutching at the pain in his back. ryoga snarled punching a whole in the wall "tell me where akane is ranma!!" he yelled catching him up and slammed him back into the wall.

ryoga stopped hearing a click and a soft whine "put him down now scumbag!" he turned and glared at the woman, the weapon in her hand one he hadn't seen before "shut up lady, this is between the cripple and me!" he growled. ranma blinked and reached for the coke of a passing doctor and poured it over ryogas head. he slumped to the ground and picked up the pig "bastard." he said slamming him into the wall hard enough to crack the brick. he looked up to see akane staring pale faced at the pig "ryoga was..."

he nodded before standing up with some help and they carried him to the large car they came in. ranma layed across akanes lap wearily "lets hope happosai didn't bring him." he whispered before falling asleep.

part two

ranma looked up from the upside down position he was in for his push ups as the black man tony had introduced as brodie came into the room to blink at him "i thought you were to take it easy?" he asked looking disgruntled. akane on the other side of the room chuckled "for him thats almost laying down brodie-san he used to have a sparing session every morning that makes what we did yesterday look like pattie cake." she chuckled. brodie blinked "huh, ok. but stop if you feel pain." he instructed. ranma flipped about and landed on his feet "brodie-san, i feel like i need to repay you and tony-san some of the kindness you have shown us,  
would you be willing to join akane in martial arts instruction?"

he looked hesitent "i don't know, i'm not the type to have a lot of time on my hands." he said softly. ranma blinked at him "i can make it so you would not need the dark armor as often as you do, and i can teach you how to get over the fear of being inside it." he whispered softly, looking sympathetic. he blinked at the japanese boy before him for a few minutes before looking down "i would be greatful for the help." he murmured softly. ranma bowed "i would be honored for the chance."

ranma looked up from berating the two of them a month later, brodie was now as good as akane had been and akane had surprised even him in how fast she learned, when tony walked out into the part of the mansions grounds they had comendeered and blinked in shock seeing the two trading lightning fast and furious attacks and doing a good job of defending themselves, not that ranma didn't find something to complain about. "excuse me for interrupting but i was wanting to talk to ranma."

ranma nodded looking at the two "practice those new katas i showed you for a while, remember that you are never too good for any kata, they are the heart and soul of the art, they teach you patience and to some extent, can bring peace to a troubled mind." they nodded, akane blowing him a kiss before he walked into the house with tony "what is it you wish me to do tony-sama?" he said respectfully. tony smiled taking him to the elivator "i've been watching you since you came to stay with us, i feel your right for this."

ranma gapped at the suits of armor in the glass cases along the wall the elevator opened upto after the short ride "i designed all of these armors ranma, but there was one thing i designed before that, that i think you would be interested in." he nodded to the red head as they got to a large computer room with all types of things flashing over their monitors. he turned around and pulled his shirt open and touched a part of his chest and ranma gapped seeing the blinking light and buttons "i had to replace my heart. i know this would never work for you, but i have something i was never able to use since it came after this."

he waved to the glass tank "its a nutrient bath with chemicals added with just the right types of energy to restore weakened body parts to full health." ranma looked hopeful "i can be normal again?" he breathed softly. then turned to tony "i would give anything to be whole sensei,  
even if its just teaching hand to hand techniques to your security, i would do it."

tony smiled "i was thinking something bigger." he walked over to a darkened case and smiled "see, i need someone with your skill to ride backup with ironman, i will train you in how to pilot the suit." he murmured showing ranma the red and black armor in the case, a smaller version of the ironman suit. ranma bit his lip "can akane join us sensei?  
in the last few weeks akane has become my equal in the art and it wouldn't feel right if i kept this from her."

tony grinned "thats up to akane. well? would you be willing to join ranma?" he asked. ranma looked and smiled at the deeply pleased look on akanes face and realized that she had heard him "i would also do anything to have ranma whole again sensei. the only reason ranma was hit by those bullets was because he was shielding me with his body." she said leaning on ranma as she hugged him. he smiled. tony nodded.

brodie grinned walking to another case and hit the light on its side. in it was a matching suit for ranmas, except it was definitely for a woman. akane was in love. ranma looked troubled suddenly "we won't be required to kill anyone will we? i was forced to take a mans life once and i do not want to repeat it." he said softly troubled. tony smiled "i'm glad you feel that way, because ironman has never killed if there was any possible way to stop it from happening. no,  
killing is something you must decide on your own, and deal with yourself."

ranma nodded "i pray we never have to." tony nodded in aproval "good, the regeneration process will take four hours, maybe you should go get something to eat and prepare."

ranma blushed seeing that akane was watching him admiringly as he walked onto the grate that would lower him into the glass chamber. he nodded to tony and smiled. he smiled back and tapped a few keys on his station and the grate started lowering "any idea about what to expect?" he asked. he shook his head "nope, this has never been tried before"  
ranma blanched then laughed "then i am honored to test it for you!" he laughed. tony grinned nodding.

ranma blinked as the tube started to fill with the green tinted fluid that was rapidly crawling up his knees "thats a wierd feeling." he comented looking at his feet. they blinked "what is that?" brodie asked looking at him from behind red.  
ranma smirked "feels like warm syrup."

tony nodded to brodie and they started the light moving up and down his body. ranma groaned softly when the light slowed at his abdomen and he jerked a bit "GEEZ, feels like every meal akane ever made is come back to haunt me"  
akane jumped up yelling and he put a hand on the glass "sorry love, your cooking is very good, but it didn't used to be and we both know that, and thats the only thing i could think of to describe it."

she sat back down but was none too pleased about it.  
"process, seventeen percent finished."

ranma snapped awake from the relieved weariness of having the fire in his chest finished when the burning, itching feeling spread through his face and blinked down at akane who was leaning on the chamber holding a cup of something steaming ".... and the whole time this guys literally beating ranma down. he kept getting back up, the fight looked hopeless, ranma looked half dead, so what was i to do? i distracted saffron hoping ranma could escape."

he touched the glass above her head "but i didn't." he said softly and everyone looked up at him. "no. you didn't. one of his spells felled me right off the bat." she murmured touching the glass where his hand was "i saw you disappear.  
and i saw red, after that i didn't feel anything saffron did, i tore him apart before incinerating his body... he dared hurt my akane."

akane got a warm and contented look on her face as she ran her fingers down the glass "ranma no baka.... always jumping in and saving me when you think i'm in trouble...." she whispered lovingly. ranma smirked through the mask "well for now on, we're a team love. you can help save my ass." she giggled softly "oh ya! imagine the shock! mister martial arts god was saved from defeat by his wife!" she laughed.  
ranma pouted and crossed his arms looking away "and when did we get married?" he demanded haughtily. she blinked "what? you don't want to?" she asked looking angry.

he grinned leaning close to the glass "i was just wondering when i should be at the temple, hate to be late." he said softly, a warm loving sound to his voice. she laughed softly and turned away to wipe at the tears suddenly in her eyes.  
red walked over and hugged her "whats wrong?" brodie asked,  
he thought it was rather sweet. ranma looked up and sighed "we tried to get married soon after returning from china that last time, our parents set it up. our would be suitors crashed the party and started pitching explosives at akane and my mother. they ruined it. we haven't talked about marrage since because i was worried one of the less stable girls out to make me theirs would hurt akane. they get quite violent when we tried to show our feelings for each other, it got so bad... we had to start acting like we hated each other just to keep each other safe."

brodie shook his head "man, that has got to suck, maybe we should have ironman in attendance." he chuckled jokingly.  
tony nodded "maybe we should." akane smiled dazzlingly at the two letting the tears spill in full force "if we're going to invite our families akane i'll want the time to retrain myself, i know i've slowed down." he murmured softly. she grinned up at him "does this mean i get to badger you now?"

ranma grinned running on the tread mill and looked at tony.  
he grinned "still in fine condition. you've done every test we have and its almost like your walking down the stairs"  
he grinned "i'd say a full recovery." brodie congratulated hugging akane. ranma chuckled "do you got a portable version of this thing?" he asked motioning to the sensor set up he had all over his body.

ranma chuckled pulling a shirt on and looked at akane "try to keep up!" he said cheerfully before tensing up and vaulted the four stories to the roof top. they looked up after the two and shook their heads "can you do that brodie?" red asked. he chuckled "no." he grinned wider "i can only jump two stories so far, ranma says i can jump as high as eight stories once i learn to control my chi better. excuse me, i have to go do my morning katas." he said jogging away. tony looked at the woman next to him "maybe we should look into a little training ourselves"  
"can you hear me tony-sensei?" ranma called having stopped on a roof top to allow akane to catch up "just fine i'm picking up your signal from a relay station, are you really forty miles from the mansion?" he asked. ranma blinked looking around "i guess so, we're in down town new york."

tony winced "are you on the roof tops?" ranma nodded hugging akane who had just jumped to his roof "yep, why?" he looked up and blinked at a man that just appeared on the roof tops "because spiderman is likely to stop you." ranma blinked "spiderman? does he wear a red and black costume with big white eyes?" tony sighed "let me talk to him."

ranma nodded pulling the head set off "stark-san wishes to speak with spiderman." he said respectfully. the man blinked "are you some sort of robot stark is working on?" ranma offered the head set. he took it and pressed it to the side of his mask "yes?" he nodded.

"spiderman, these two aren't harming anything, the boy just got over being shot in the back with a sub machine gun, hes a friend of mine and i'm helping his recovery. right now hes out for a jog."

spiderman nodded "ya, on top of an eighty foot sky scraper"  
he asked disbelieving. tony chuckled "from what i understand this is a normal workout for him. oh, just remembered, if your partners around keep her away from him, hes got an extreme case of alurophobia." ranma screamed.

akane looked up when ranma hopped over one of the small towers on the roof and cowered there, then at the woman that had just joined them on the roof "whos the the scaredy cat"  
she chuckled walking over to spiderman. akane glared at her before walking over to ranma and cradled his shaking frame.  
spiderman nodded looking at ranma "extreme case of alurophobia, gotcha."

the woman looked amused "oohh, poor boy scared of cats?" she purred and swayed over to them and ranma yelped scrambling away from her "st- stay back! theres no telling what the neko will do in the city!" he screamed backing to the edge of the building. the woman chuckled starting towards him and he cursed looking down at the ground. he took ten steps towards her then turned about and bolted for the side of the roof "ranma no!!" akane screamed and ran to the side. she watched breathless as he twisted about in the air and bounced off one of the glass panels at the building across from the one he had just come off of.

"how does he land on glass without breaking it?" spiderman asked dumbly. akane shook her head "you got me, can you give me a lift down? i am not doing that." he nodded picking her up and jumped off.

by the time ranma landed he found he had an audiance and camera men standing about. he rolled on landing and stayed on his knees panting for a minute before standing up and looked around him. he scratched his head "looks different then it does up there."

he looked as spiderman landed with akane "ranma no baka! you scared me!" she yelled pounding him into the ground with her mallet. he stood up and glared at her "hey i thought we stopped with the mallet?!" she glared "you scared me, what were you thinking jumping off that building?" she demanded.  
he glared back "i was trying to get away from that cat!" he yelled back then screamed jumping to the ledge forty feet above him as the cat woman landed near them "damn it stay away from me!!" he yelled at her. spiderman layed a hand on catwomans shoulder "leave off cat, its mean to torment him."

she pouted looking up at him "i can't help it! hes so fun to play with!" she jumped to the top of the canopy above the stores entrance. ranma whimpered ducking down and covered his head as she got up to him. akane jumped up to him and dropped into a fighting stance in front of ranma "go away!"

the woman hissed lightly baring her claws at her "how is he to over come his fear if he isn't exposed to cats?" she said walking towards them "its not a fear! its a trigger for the nekoken." she blinked "spider what does neko ken mean?" she asked. spiderman scratched at his head "catfist in english. how do you mean a trigger?"

akane calmed seeing he was willing to get between the two "the nekoken is a terror based martial arts move, its unstoppable. and the worse part is that ranmas mind shuts down so he has no control over the neko."

"spiderman, somethings going on, ranmas vitals just shot up." spidermen looked to find ranma staring in terror at a man in a trench coat below them "you there! get lost!" he yelled waving him off. he chuckled evilly "oohh, is the little boy scared of us cats?" he cackled.

part three

"sabertooth!" spiderman exclaimed as the man jumped for the wall and climbed it using his claws. ranma screamed weakly slumping into akanes arms. "get away from him!" she screamed launching herself at him. he laughed catching her hand then grunted bending almost double as she planted her knee into his gut. she followed it up with a round house kick to the head that sent him over the ledge. spiderman jumped and grabbed her before she went over with him "let go that hurts!" she yelled kicking his hand, he snarled droping to the ground but raked her hand with his claws. akane cried out at the pain and held her hand until she noticed ranma blinking at her. she blinked back and gasped when he hissed glaring down at sabertooth.

ranma gripped the side of the ledge and snarled down at him as he leered back up at him "no, ranma, stay!" she cried jumping for him. ranma yowled lunging at the man and the crowd cried out moving back as far as they could as the ground where he had been was ripped into small chunks. ranma recovered and bounced at the man, winging his with his next strike, which ripped the front of a car into metal shavings.  
sabertooth snarled gripping his side, blood already soaking through. ranma hissed stalking towards him when a blast of energy smashed sabertooth back into the wall, knocking him unconscious.

ranma blinked up at ironman when he settled to the ground near him and looked at a small device in his hand "well now your rather calm for someone that was just fighting with sabertooth." he murmured using gentle tones. neko ranma meowed at him and curled up against the wall and watched the crowd with all the studied disinterest of a cat. akane jumped down and clicked her tongue offering her hand "here kitty kitty!" she called sweetly and ranma jumped to her meowing happily. he landed in her lap and started his aquivalent of a purr. she petted him for a minute before looking annoyed at the cat woman "ranma can shred solid steel when he goes neko, so far only people he trusts can calm him down when he isn't mad, he's never really tried to hurt anyone before."

spiderman blinked at the support team that ironman brought with him started seeing to sabertooths wounds after clamping him into the huge restraint system they brought "then why did he gut sabertooth?" akane winced holding up her banaged hand, which ranma wouldn't let go of "because he hurt me.  
neko ranma usually just plays with people he dislikes, like a mouse."

he nodded slowly and blinked when ranma sat up and blinked around looking confused then looked at her hand and gasped "what happened!?" he demanded then got up and quickly took in the damage. he looked scared as he looked her over for signs that he had attacked her "did i do this!??" he demanded fearfully. she smiled cupping his face in her hands "no, you did all this chasing after the guy that did this"  
she touched her hand. his fear turned to anger and looked around stoping for a second on the blood splatter then the guy strapped to the bed like thing a troop of robots were rolling into an armored car that had arrived for it "congratulations son, you just captured a cold blooded killer."

ranma looked dumbly at ironman before shrugging "are we finished testing?" he asked plantively. ironman nodded closing the device he had in his hand "yes, as far as we can tell your as healthy as you were before the shooting"  
he said aprovingly. ranma nodded smiling "then i'll race you back to stark labs!"

ranma was sitting in the front room watching the news report,  
looking morbidly facinated, when tony came into the room.  
"whats so interesting?" he asked. ranma looked at him "i've never seen myself when i go neko." he murmured softly. he looked at tony "we didn't cause any trouble for you, did we?" he asked worried. tony smirked shaking his head "nope,  
just a lot of publicity, seems someone leaked your story to the press, about the shooting and your martial arts school,  
if anything you helped raise the price of stock for stark enterprises." he chuckled. ranma nodded smiling "thats good,  
i was afraid we had embarressed you."

ranma looked up again after watching the rest of the program with him when akane came in the room and hugged him from behind "whatcha doing?" she asked kissing his ear. he smiled "watching a cat gut a tiger." tony shook his head "thats unbelievable, how do you do that?" he asked. ranma blinked. "the neko can mantiplate the air pressure around him to form claws that cut through anything."

all three of them jumped hearing the voice and they blinked at the two people brodie led into the room "tofu-sensei"  
ranma exclaimed. akane jumped up and hugged the woman "onnechan!" she exclaimed hugging kasumi. she smiled sweetly at akane "i'm so happy to see the two of you alright!" she said hugging back. ranma grinned shaking tofus hand "you old dog! how did you finally get around to asking her?" he said grinning. tofu blinked "how did you know kasumi and i were married?" he asked confused. ranma chuckled.

"well, the two of you are wearing wedding rings and your calm, something thats unheard of when kasumis around, so you must have gotten married." he turned and bowed to tony "dr tofu, this is stark-sama, he is the one that helped heal me after akane and i were brought here by him, we had to leave"  
he nodded "i know, i heard about how they wrote you off when kasumi moved in with me."

ranma looked surprised at kasumi. she almost frowned "it was wrong of them to just.... pass you by like that! after everything you did for our family they just forgot about you when they heard you were crippled." she said hugging him.  
ranma smiled and grinned when she hugged tony "thankyou for helping them, it was terrible what they were doing to little brother and sister." she murmured. then grinned at the shock on ranma and akanes face "its true! as soon as you two marry ranma will be my brother."

tony smiled at the serene woman before him "where are you two staying? can't really send you away since your their family." he said smiling. tofu blushed "i would be honored sir, but wouldn't we be imposing?" he asked hesitent. tony shook his head "before ranma and akane came i was the only one that lived here, i never realized how dull the house was.  
i'd welcome the company."

kasumi covered her mouth "then i insist on cooking! it would be wrong not to repay your hospitality in some way." she said pleadingly. he smiled "alright, the chef is preparing lunch, if you wish you can see what hes missing." she nodded letting him show her the way "ranma would you mind if i examined you?" tofu asked. ranma grinned "sure, but do you think you could help me figure out why brodie-san isn't producing more ki? i've tried everything i know."

tofu nodded looking at the black man "would you be willing to let me look? i was ranmas family doctor for the last few years." he shrugged "what are you a doctor of?" ranma grinned "hes a chiropractor and a doctor of shiatzu and chi lines."

ranma grinned sitting on the bed as tofu carefully went over his back "i expected the chi lines in your back to be corroded and closed off, but your not getting anything past this point in your back." he murmured tapping a few spots and ranma jerked out of the bed and bounced on his toes for a minute "what was that?" he asked settling down. tofu blinked "that would be your ki levels returning to full operation"  
he murmured looking closely and touched the scar in his lower back "one of the bullets grazed your spine didn't it"  
he mused looking over his legs and tapped a few more places before turning him around. ranma smirked "i feel like i'm on a sugar high."

he smiled finishing brodie "i can tell you've been training with ranma for a while." he noted rapidly tapping spots all over his back. he blinked feeling light headed "how do you mean?" tofu chuckled "you were rather athletic but are now using muscles you've never used before, its all in the chi.  
ranmas the only one i know who uses all of their chi points." he murmured. brodie blinked then looked at ranma doing push ups on his thumb. he shrugged.

when the three came down they were surprised by the feast set up on the table "geez, whos coming to lunch tony?" brodie exclaimed. tony looked grim "captain america and that professor xavier guy, the avengers were asked to look into the powers our house guests were exibiting in dealing with the mutant sabertooth." tofu looked suprised "they think ranma and akane are mutants?" he asked looking like he wanted to laugh. he nodded. tofu smirked "ranma and akane were born into one of the most isotoric martial arts schools in japan,  
its governing master is over four hundred years old. they trained hard to attain the power they have."

when their guests arrived they blinked seeing that everyone was sitting around empty plates with all the food at the foot with akane and kasumi. one of them smiled in understanding and took a chair "what is this logan?" the older bald man in a strange chair asked. he smiled "its improper to begin the meal until all that were invited were seated and served." kasumi smiled nodding "it would be impolite."

they blinked not able to refute her. ranma blinked as the man wearing the blue costume set down a shield with a star on it. "did you really think you would need that captain"  
tony asked looking angry. he shrugged that off "i don't know tony, i know nothing of the case i'm looking into." ranma blinked up at the man "you are a lot older then you look.  
and your aura is depressed." he mused looking interested then blinked looking disgruntled at the man with blue fur and nerviously looked away "please do not let my exterior upset you, it is the result of a science experiment that blew up in my face."

ranma nodded looking down "its not that sir, you look too much like a cat for my comfort." he said in apology. tofu and kasumi nodded while akane comforted him with a touch.  
the man blinked "you do fear felines don't you?" he murmured.  
ranma nodded "a result of being fed to a few hundred starving cats when i was six."

they blinked in shock "who did that?!" tony exclaimed. ranma cleared his throat "my father. the process of training someone in the nekoken is simply tie them up and rap them in fish sausage, then throw them in a pit of starving cats for a few hours. repeat until the trainee frees himself"  
akane set a plate in front of him and another one in front of logan who thanked her in perfect japanese. she smiled bowing "your welcome."

the older man cleared his throat "didn't your father know how much it would traumatize you?" he asked ranma looked at him "the nekoken was banned because of that fact, its a terror based attack that requires the person trained to be so scared his mind shuts down and the subconscious builds the neko psychi to keep you from going totally insane."

the man looked horrified "they encouraged you to develope a split personality?!" he asked shocked. ranma blinked at him then shrugged "i guess, usually the trainee either swallows his tongue or has to be put down to stop them from killing people, i was lucky because i survived it." he smirked "the thing is that i haven't mastered the catfist yet i'm still working on the first level."

tofu looked up in surprise "theres a second level?!" ranma nodded "yep, i have to learn to control the catfist while still awake, i guess getting rid of the neko psychi." tony blinked "but wouldn't that make you insane?" he asked. ranma shrugged "don't know, not much is known about the catfist.  
but from what i've heard, i would become an avid cat lover,  
i don't see it, but thats what i heard. me, i would rather bury the catfist and pretend it never existed."

the old man blinked thinking about it "that might not be the best thing. if you want, i could help you deal with this trauma." he offered. ranma shrugged "if mister stark says its ok." he didn't see the curious looks they shot stark. he smiled "ranma thinks he is indebted to me for helping him."

ranma set down his fork and looked at him "i am. i was bed ridden and about to have everything i care about taken from me and given to my enemy who had only a quarter the honor or discipline i have, my fiancee as well as my school. they had decided not an hour after i got out of surgery that my life would be religated to the role of the useless shame they shoulder because i'm family."

he looked bitter "but knowing my father, he would have goaded me into killing myself for 'the family honor.' he would have seen it as a disgrace that i couldn't stop the bullets, one of his favorite sayings when i was growing up was 'a martial artist can do anything if he only tries'  
like he holds himself up to those standards, i'm a disgrace,  
when i'm the one that holds a dan master level of seventeen in forty different schools, hell, my rank in our school would be grand master if the old fool they cowtow to would admit i'm a better master then he is, he depends on tricks and explosives to beat me in our fights."

he shook his head. akane hugged him from her seat beside him "ranmas sucessfully defeated four demons and a literal living god and they treat it like its nothing, they've never had the courage to try fighting half the people ranma beat.  
they had the nerve to treat him like this after he saved all of us more times then i can remember. you saved us tony-san,  
when everyone else we knew wanted to sweep ranma under the rug and pretend ryoga was the only heir to our school."

tofu protested weakly. "i'm sorry tofu-sensei, but you would not have been able to stop our families from forcing us. i know kasumi and you were worried, but the rest of them were too happy with the idea of saving their school." ranma nodded sadly. tofu sighed not being able to disagree.

tony cupped his hands together deep in thought "this ryoga was the one that attacked you at the hospital?" he asked softly. ranma nodded "he wanted to rub his victory in my face, but since akane hadn't come home that night, electing to stay with me, he figured beating me for once would be nice." he smirked "he was never able to touch me when i was healthy, he didn't care that i had just come out of the coma, he just wanted to say he had beaten me and taken my fiancee as his wife, he had been trying for some years to kill me."

akane looked angry as hell "my father practically comanded me to renounce my engagement and take ryoga as my 'rightful'  
fiance. i would have renounced the lot of them on the spot if i didn't think happosai and ryoga would have forced me to change my mind." tony looked at ranma "what about you"  
ranma blinked at him "i have no family, all i have is my name and my school, which i'll be damned before i allow them to take from me. i know what they had planned, i would be 'honored' by being 'allowed' to train the new heir. they would have forced me to teach the bastard every style i learned and every skill i developed, my school. i had mastered their school by the time i was ten."

part four

tony nodded "the school you've been training brodie in"  
ranma nodded "and i'm quite proud of him, when we started akane could pin him in seconds, in the last month akane has become as good as i was and brodie can still keep up with her. hes learned to tap into his chi well enough to hop forty feet into the air and come down with no problems."

brodie grinned at the interested looks he was given. he nodded "i can run across the roof tops in the residental sections, but i'm not good enough yet to jump those high rises you two were leap froging." ranma chuckled "its the only way to travel."

tony smirked "i'm sure. ranma, since you claim no family,  
would you be willing to let me formally adopt you?" ranma was shocked and pleased "i.... i don't know what to say." he said shocked. tony smiled "i find the idea of you being forced to go back to your families loathsome. if you let me adopt you, you would be given american citizenship, and so would akane when you marry her."

ranma looked shell shocked and hopeful "as long as tony-san says its ok." he said shakily. tony chuckled "good, i'm certain he will agree." ranma laughed with him. he looked at akane and chuckled louder "you know what i just realized"  
she shook her head kissing him "the heir to the saotome school, my fathers school, is also ukyos fiance!"

she looked surprised and he nodded "she was betrothed to the the son of one saotome genma, and for them to make ryoga the heir..." she started giggling "genma would have to adopt him!" she laughed. he nodded sitting back in his chair "yep.  
now if we can keep the chinese contengent from poping up we can have a normal wedding like wedding."

the captain looked interested "whats the chinese contengent?" ranma and akane looked at each other "the amazons of china. they have this rule see, if an outsider woman defeats an amazon warrior that warrior will give her the kiss of death and hunt her to the ends of the earth until they kill that woman. the flip side of that rule is:  
if an outsider male is responsable for the defeat of an amazon warrior she will give him the kiss of marrage and hunt him to the ends of the earth until she drags him back to the village as her husband."

akane nodded "no better then slaves. they think they have the right to enter your land, trick any strong male into knocking one of their spinsters out and then think its reasonable to drag you back to their country with them just because your not married yet."

all of them looked shocked at that. "what if their already married?" hank asked. "and with children?" the captain added already hating this idea. ranma blinked and pulled a book out of his pocket, something way to large for his pocket, and flipped through it "if the outsider male is married the amazon will consider anything stopping them from taking the male back to the village as an obstical."

ranma and akane cleared their throats "obstical is for killing." they chorused. akane smirked at the shocked looks on their faces "i was the obstical shampoo tried to get rid of. finally ranma threatened to kill her if she didn't leave me alone." ranma nodded "they liked to mix mind altering drugs with pressure points to 'convence' the males to return home with them."

akane nodded "the time she blocked any memory of ever knowing ranma." he nodded "the love pill that caused you to fall madly in love with the first member of the oposite sex you see." she grinned "the cats tongue pressure point." he shivered "the hypno mushrooms." she sighed "the despression pressure point." he rubbed her back "the phoenix pill." she looked thoughtful "the reversal jewel." he paled "the cats bell." she looked pained "the cursing pot."

he shrugged "anything and everything to make me go back with them. that old witch even taught ryoga an attack that can shatter rock by touching it." she nodded "the breaking point." he sighed.

she looked teasing and poked him "then theres the other chinese nations that want you dead." he looked pained and shook his head "maybe they will stay home?" he asked hopefully. she shook her head "when have your enemies ever stayed home, remember taro? he had never met you before happosai showed up." ranma nodded looking put upon. she grinned "then theres taros enemies, rouge." he grimaced "taro and rouge are victims of the cursed training ground of jusenkyo, taro turns into a minotaur with wings and has the ability to fire bolts of eletricity at you. rouge turns into this six armed goddess thing you just know wouldn't mind eating any passing man."

akane smirked "and they hate each other with a vengance. and lets not forget the cat cult of the musk dynasty." ranma shivered "the musk dynasty likes to grab anything living and throw it into my patron spring and marry it to increase the strength of their children, they also sacrifice forty virgin females each year to their god."

akane nodded "their the other side of the amazon coin, they see a woman, animal, man, insect, that they like, they take it home, prepare it and then make babies." ranma picked up his glass of water and dumped it over his had. captain jumped out of his chair "i was cursed by the spring of drowned girl, very tragic legend of girl the musk dynasty drowned in one of the springs to create.. spring of drowned girl. their a bunch of sickos, if they think a dog is rather attractive they dump it in the spring."

akane snapped her fingers "and like that, you have a young woman who happens to have the mind of a dog. and with the laddle they can trap said dog as a woman until the cursing pot is used to unlock the curse, allowing the curse victim to return to their normal form." he thanked kasumi for the glass of hot water.

captain shook his head "and the amazons did that to you?" he asked. ranma shook his head "nope, my father did. and because of it my mother has been too sickened by the fact that i turn into a girl to ever really admit i'm her son"  
akane leaned on him "and then there was the ones that dropped in from the sky." she continued. ranma smirked "the seven lucky gods. this girl showed up on our door step looking for the old freak when coincidentally, the leaders of this one chinese nation showed up and snatched akane just because she was holding the second part of a scroll happosai stole from them and gave to this girl, who threw it at happosai after her killer elephent pummeled him into the ground. akane was smart enough to pick it up."

she hit him. "ranma was forced to destroy their castle before kirin let me go." ranma smirked then stopped his face darkening. akane sighed hugging him "then there was saffron.  
he didn't want anything, just wanted us all dead, starting with ranma." he nodded standing up and left the room. akane looked sadly after him "both of us nearly lost our lives so many times on that trip. ranma was forced to go all out to kill saffron to save my life, it was a close thing, almost too late."

when logan and captain america found ranma he was beating on the armored sparring dummies tony had built for them. he ended the fight by kicking the things head so hard it broke off. "so why does it still make you angry if you killed him." logan growled lighting his cigar. ranma snorted "because, his race isn't called the phoenix's people for nothing. he was reborn an hour later as a small child. he swore he would come back and kill us."

he leaned against the wall and panted softly "i barely beat him last time, i mean, i ripped his freakin arm off and the damned thing grew back!" he whined at them. he shook his head "we flattened that mountain of theirs during our fight,  
i dismembered him, crystalized his body before he could stop me, then i shattered him. everything else i tried.  
nothing worked. my worst nightmare is that he'll come back after we have kids and i'll be too old to do a damned thing to stop him."

he shook his head looking at the ground "i truely do live a cursed existance, like i'm being punished for surviving all the shit that came before." he stood strait and smirked cockily "not that i won't make them pay dearly before they take me down." he rumbled holding up a fist burning with blue fire. he opened his hand and the fire swirled out and formed into a ball "they'll keep comin' and i'll keep sending 'em home."

he raised his hand and fired the blast at the robot that was standing where its head had been detatched. the ground exploded and they had to shield their eyes. when it died down and the others had ran out to join them, ranma walked to the ten foot deep pit, about forty feet across and nodded looking at it "ki bomb." tofu looked surprised "your developing your own ki attacks!?" he asked suprised. he nodded looking speculatively at the hole "can i turn this into a carp pond?" he asked tony. he nodded "do what you will ranma, i would love to see what you could do to the landscaping."

ranma looked up from the rock he was fitting to the wall of the pit he had made and blinked when a whistle made him look up. he blinked at the japanese woman that walked out into the yard with a beautiful red haired guijin and the professor. he waved before going back to his stone "what are you up to ranma?" charles asked politely. ranma smiled "well, i'm going to seal the bottom with these rocks then put a layer of mud i took from the lake and seed it with the plants and algae koi like to eat. then i will fill it and place the baby fish in. then i can start arranging the stones for the rock garden, akane is planting the trees and other plants."

he nodded looking down at the stone as he placed it,  
surprised to see the light that flaired from his fingers as he stroked the sides of the two rocks he was placing it in "what is that?" he asked. ranma chuckled "i use my ki to melt the rock just enough for them to seal when they cool but not lose the placed look." he said gently fitting the rock.  
"but why do that when you will just cover it up when you fill it?" the red head asked curiously. ranma looked up at her and smirked "this does not matter, i know what it took to make it, so do those that helped and watched, i don't care what other people that didn't have a hand in making it think, the rock garden is just as much art, in the making,  
as it is finished. would you have me just fill it with cement?"

he shook his head "no, that would be a dishonor to those that come to use it later. as well as the fish, this will be there home, they may just be fish but i would rather do the whole job, and put beauty into the entire process that it can't help but be a work of art." he picked up another rock and studied the ones he would fit it to and started shaving the excess off, flicking his eyes to the place every now and then before looking back up at them not stopping "so what can i do for you?" he asked. professor smiled "i was hoping we could start on helping you with the trauma the catfist training put you through."

ranma shrugged "let me finish this one and i'll be right in." he said politely. he nodded turning his chair around and went back into the house, the japanese woman stayed to watch "so where did you grow up?" she asked. he smirked "the eastern hemisphere. but i lived with my mother in jubban ward until i was four. after that i had a travel pack as a home."

she blinked "you were homeless?" she asked. he chuckled looking up at her "no. i had a home, my mother was in it. i was with my father since he took off with me and a travel pack vowing that he would make me the greatest martial artist in the world or he would kill both of us." he looked back down at the stone "my mother had him put it in writing."

ranma walked into the room where the professor and the red head had decided to do it "now lay down on the bed and you will fall asleep, let it happen." he said reassuringly.  
ranma nodded closing his eyes and was instantly asleep "that was quick professor." jean murmured. he blinked "i didn't do it."

when ranma woke up he cried out shielding his eyes from the sun bearing down on him and swiped at it, he heard a crashing sound and the light went away. he sat up and covered his ears at the loud humming sound he heard all around him. he whimpered softly and looked at the window, he lunged for it.

everyone down stairs jumped hearing the window burst and those that could bolted up stairs. "hes gone!" brodie exclaimed running out the side of the house. akane jumped up and bolted out ofter him "ranma!" she called after looking at the window then at the ground below it she started to run out to where brodie was searching when something grabbed her from behind, she screamed instinctively as she was suddenly flying off the ground and blinked as what ever grabbed her put her down on the roof "too loud..." he whimpered holding his head and akane gasped seeing blood trickling from ranmas ears "its too loud akane!"

he whimpered holding his head in pain as ironman dropped to the roof "whats wrong?" he asked. akane looked desperately at him "he said everything is too loud! his ears are bleeding!" she said holding up her hand with blood on it. he nodded thinking about it for a moment then came forward and knocked him out with a stun blast "lets get him downstairs,  
figure out what the hell they did to him."

akane nodded hurrying after the armored hero as he scooped ranma up and jumped to the ground "hey, what the hell"  
brodie exclaimed hurrying up with tofu. akane was holding ranmas hands "he said everything was too loud and started bleeding out his ears." she sobbed frantic. tofu frowned "lets get him inside, this doesn't look right." he murmured looking closely.

tofu frowned quickly stripping ranma with akanes help and rumbled worryingly "his chi is focused too tightly to handle the amount of ki thats being released." he murmured taping a few spots on his hands, feet, chest and back "this is rather amazing. his whole body is bursting with ki, i imagine its what the catfist attack looks like. the only problem is that ranma is unused to dealing with being boosted so high. his ears were bleeding because the background noises must have been maddening in their volume."

he looked about before pointing at the light switch "please turn the light off, if his hearing is boosted so will the rest of his senses." he murmured and touched a spot on the back of ranmas neck. he groaned reaching up to grab his head "how is the volume now ranma?" he murmured softly. he blinked at him "still a lot louder then normal, but i can deal with it."

he nodded "what about light, how sensitive are you to light?" he asked at a normal volume and smiled encouragingly at him. he closed his eyes tightly when the light came on and slowly opened them and blinked around the room. he looked at tofu who blinked seeing that his eyes were severely contracted. he looked closely and shook his head "you'd think he was out in the full day light." he murmured. ranma shrugged "its not that bad."

he nodded snapping his fingers making him flinch away from him. he nodded "you'll need a few days to adjust. so try not to over do it ok?" he asked sternly and ranma smiled looking down nodding "alright alright. i promise i'll take it easy."

ranma came down stairs slowly the next morning, looking kind of like a humming bird the way he was flinching from everything. when he got to the table he smiled hesitently at everyone "hello, the noises aren't as bad today as they were last night." he said lightly sitting in his chair next to akane. she smiled encouragingly at him as she gripped his hand and almost yelped at the slightly drained feeling it made in her.

both blinked at each other for a minute until tofu came around and looked interestedly at the two of them "i say,  
that is interesting." he murmured looking closely at ranma then akane "you'd almost think her chi was instructing his..." he looked at them for a minute more before taking their hands and pressed them together firmly, both of them groaned leaning over slightly.

tofu watched nodding with a smirk on his face "i see you two brought back more then what you told from your trip to jusendo." he murmured softly smiling "how do you mean?" tony asked curiously, he didn't see anything but the two of them looking a little dazed. tofu smiled "one of the reasons i'm their prefered doctor is because i can see and use my own chi and so i can also redirect the flow of chi in other people through pressure points and other means to encourage a persons body to heal quicker, or like i do with ranma, he is pretty much dependent on his ki so he has to be able to use it over all his body."

he smirked "to tell the truth, if it wasn't for ranma always needing to be patched up i wouldn't be as good at what i do.  
he almost single handedly made it so i am now recognized as a master of my field. what you aren't seeing is that somehow the two of them are transfering chi between each other,  
ranmas is out of balance so his is using hers as a way to smooth out the extreme exccess, allowing him to better cope and is speeding his adaption to the hightened reflexes."

he looked between the two for a few minutes facinated until they slumped letting go of each other. "how did you do that ranma?" he asked. ranma smiled weakly "i've trained in the mental focusing techniques that promote rapid healing since i was seven. i figured out that using my chi, i can heal someone else. i was overextended after my fight with saffron, my chi was horribly out of balance. after getting the water needed to safe akane, she didn't have a pulse."

kasumi gasped covering her mouth and he nodded resting his head on the table "i realized, i was unconsciously reviving her by dumping everything i had into her. by the time the rest of them showed up, she as just fine, and she had corrected the imbalance without trying. after that we'd strengthen our chi' just by touching, if ones weak the other gives them what they need, if i'm wounded, the healing is a lot faster as long as i'm in contact with her."

he reached over and took akanes bandaged hand and showed them the fresh dressing kasumi had put on it that morning "how long would you think it would take these gashes to heal after seeing them this morning?" kasumi blinked "a few weeks." she said curious what he was doing. he smiled assuringly at akane as he slowly started taking the bandage off "ranma we'll just have to..." akane stopped seeing the light pink color of the healed skin and looked dazedly at it as ranma gently washed the medicine and dried blood off of the skin using a napkin and a little water. he smiled showing the others.

tony and brodie looked thoughtfully at the unscarred skin on her hand as tofu looked at them thoughtfully "i can believe that its possible ranma, but i think your selling what you just did as less then it is." he grinned at them "before this started the differences in your auras were like night and day. akanes was what we're used to while you looked like you were in the middle of a small sun, quite bright and intense."

he looked again "akanes chi has grown ten times larger while yours leveled out to a level you can easily learn to handle.  
your chi is perfectly in sinc with each other and are of the same power level. this wasn't a normal chi transfer,  
from what i see the two of you are bonded to each other,  
and together you equalize each other and grow stronger just from touching hands. quite literally, you two are soul mates."

he smiled at their shock "if you'll remember, i examined both of you a week before you left for china ranma. you were at the power level i was used to seeing you at, quite large, and akane was at the same hight she'd been in since she was nine. when i next examined you, ranmas had doubled in size, not surprising since he was constently being challanged. but the shocking thing was that akanes was a little larger then yours was last time i looked. its almost impossible for that kind of increase without at least three to four years intense training. but from what i could tell she hadn't trained seriously at all. everytime you grow as a martial artist ranma, that increase is reflected in akane when ever you touch her, its no wonder her skill has grown so quickly, shes been training through you, all she needed were the forms."

ranma looked surprised at him then blinked at akane thoughtfully "is that so..." he murmured musingly and chuckled after a minute of thought "i guess you know what that means akane." he chuckled looking back to normal. she shrugged looking curious. he grinned wider "it means that your being lazy, and that i'm not teaching you fast enough."

ranma came in the den looking disgruntled and kasumi came over and sat next to him when he dropped to the couch "whats the matter ranma-kun?" she asked sweetly. he sighed "i don't know why i've never noticed.... do you think we could get akane to stop wearing gis?" he pleaded. she blinked in surprise "why ever for?" she asked surprised.

he cried wearily laying his head on the other side of the couch "because its getting ever so hard to hold onto my virtue when she rubs against me like that!" he said in a husky growl. she covered her mouth "oh my." he sighed sitting back up "i want her so much you know? all she has to do is walk into the room and i can't concentrate on anything! my teachings gone to shit because she likes to watch me."

they looked up as tony and brodie came charging into the room "tony-san, you seem troubled, anything i can help with?" he asked respectfully. they blinked and nodded "how did you test on that exam we set you two?" tony asked. ranma blinked then grinned "all aces. it was easy to learn to handle. want me to get akane?"

he nodded then blinked as akane walked into the room. they blinked at her then shrugged "we gotta go onnechan." ranma said standing up and pulled akane after the two men. she blinked after the four and smiled sweetly "its so good to see those two spending so much time together."

akane frowned at ranma for the treatment he was giving her until they entered the elevator and tony sighed "somethings up and we're needed." he said stepping off the lift and hurried to the frame his suit was secured on. akane blinked as ranma joined them and shrugged.

ranma frowned over looking the burning buildings as he set down on the roof with the other three "so whats this?" he asked. tony frowned "the hulk has gone on a rampage again"  
he said grimly. ranma nodded "so we're looking for a big green man right?" he asked looking down a side street. tony nodded "yes."

ranma rounded a corner and yelped as a car beat him into the wall of a building across the street. ranma shrugged the thing off and yelped dodging the next punch before smashing his finger into the back of his neck. he blinked a few times after he crashed to the ground and layed there twitching. he rubbed at the back of his head "uh, tony-san?" he called looking around. "yep." ranma crossed his arms "could it be that maybe you over rated this hulk guy?"

he blinked looking at a camera man filming him "why?" he laughed weakly "well, i found him, and he dropped like a sack of potatos when i hit a pressure point on his neck." he blinked as war machine landed next to him "holy shit! he downed the hulk! and with little damage to the surrounding areas." they stood back as the other two landed and ironman clapped him on the back "great job. thats a first, someone dropped the hulk with one shot."

ranma shrugged "can't live with tofu sensei without learning somethings." he chuckled grabbing one of the big hands and bent it up as tight to his back as he could before securing the clamp then did the other one "why do it like that?" brodie asked curiously. ranma grinned "before you can be assured you have restricted all movement of the arms, you must first know the full range of movements an arm can do. he'd rip the muscles off his elbow joint before he'd get his arms free.  
let me show you how to secure the legs."

ranma looked up from his silent contemplation of the struggling hulk as a small jet landed near them. he blinked at captain america and four others he didn't know jumped out and came towards them "ironman, warmachine, who are your new team mates?" he asked shaking their hands. ironman chuckled "the future. starks gotten the idea that two of us isn't enough anymore." he said cheerfully.

captain america nodded "tell stark i need to talk to him later about one of his guests. later."

ranma was looking very angry when the captain arrived later that night. he growled showing him the notice that had been delivered earlier "what the hell is this?" he hissed. he stood strait frowning "just what it says. i'm sorry, but the japanese government has demanded akane be returned to her family. i can't do anything about it, i've been ordered to enforce the demand." ranma backed down seeing the reluctance on his face "it is not your choice to do this, it would be dishonorable to harm the servent if he doesn't like the order he follows." he stalked over to the couch and leaned on it for a minute as he thought then grinned looking at tony "i have as idea tony-san."

he blinked "you want to rig something that looks like a spinal implant and a vital monitor to make them think you need them to survive. why?" captain asked, pausing to listen. ranma grinned "i'm going back with her. akanes ten times better then ryoga. we go, and we challange them. akane will fight for her freedom to do as she wishes. after that they'll be honor bound to not pressure the government to return her."

tony smirked "i think i'll go along in armor, to protect starks infirm ward from the man that attacked him just as he was leaving the hospital." captain frowned "i think i'll go along as well, ranma is after all, an american now." they chuckled going about it.

when ranma stepped off the plane he was wearing an expensive italian suit to go along with the designer dress akane was wearing. he looked at the captain who'd decided to wear a trench coat over his uniform. "well i guess we should get going." he said smiling at tofu and kasumi who'd decided to acompany them. they nodded starting out for the taxi stand.

ranma sat quietly looking out the window as he watched the landscape fly past, holding his cane musingly before looking back at akane "you know, i think it would look better for our metal friends if i carried the cane when ever i leave the house." he murmured. akane nodded hugging his arm "did i tell you, you look great in that suit." she purred. he grinned "and with this new repulsion field tony threw together for me i won't need to worry about changing or getting wet."

she nodded laying her head on his arm "i hope this turns out right." she whispered. he nodded turning his head and kissed her softly "it will, even if i have to kill them." he smirked as the captain started "its a joke."

ranma sighed looking at the gates of the tendo dojo for a minute before looking back at akane "are you sure you don't want to just run away? come back after a few months of marrage?" he asked looking tired. she smiled "you mean a few months pregnant." she chuckled kissing his chin. he grinned "great idea! lets go."

ranma was grumbling softly as he walked in the gate and frowned in annoyance seeing both kunos and ukyo waiting in the den with their family's, nodoka having escorted them silently then sat down by genma "ah! how i longed for your return from the lands of the evil guijin my love!" kuno gushed charging her, not noticing ranma closelining him with his cane until he'd pressed the thing firmly to his windpipe "leave her alone freak."

ukyo growled at ranma "where've you been ranma? what are you wearing?!" she snarled. ranma blinked looking at his suit "i kinda thought i looked good in it myself." he murmured letting kuno up "how dare you stand between me and my loves!? whither is the pigtailed girl!?" he demanded. ranma sighed rubbing his eyes making kuno snarl as he charged him.  
"i shall smite thee then take my loves as reward!"

ranma blinked as a blast made kuno crumple to the ground "huh, you weren't kidding when you said even your friends were your enemies." ironman commented coming up behind them.  
ranma nodded shortly before sitting slowly on the couch and almost smirked at the anger on ryogas face when akane sat close to him. kasumi and tofu flanked them, after she got chairs for the two with them "ranma, why did you bring.  
your friends?"

ranma didn't smile "stark-sensei believed it best that we have protection after the way ryoga attacked me at the hospital. he did not trust the... good natures of some of the people we might meet while here." he said resting his hands on the top of his cane. genma looked angry "are you saying you don't believe akanes safe?" he growled. ranma nodded simply "in truth, i do not believe you have the best interests of either of us at heart."

he looked at soun, dismissing genma altogether "akane wishes to challange ryogas right to be her fiance. if she wins you will cease your efforts to force her to stay here." genma and ryoga jumped up angrily "it is not your place to even try it boy!" genma yelled. ranma sniffed not looking at them "well? do you agree to the challange?"

"of course he does!" they all turned to look at happosai who was currently trying to glomb akane, who was using the captains shield to keep him away. ranma leaned over and pressed the end of his cane to the old mans back and pushed a button. happosai screamed as eletricity burst from it and blew him across the room.

he nodded "alright then. when do you wish to do this love"  
he murmured softly to akane. she smiled sweetly "how about in two hours? i need to go back to our hotel and get ready"  
she murmured standing up. tofu and kasumi stood as well "i'll help akane!" tofu nodded "i want to check your monitor ranma." he nodded standing up and they started to leave the house. "hey wait! akane stays here!" ryoga shouted standing up. ranma snorted scornfully at him but turned to akane "do you wish to stay?"

she shook her head "nope. not in the least." she answered giving him a peck on the cheek. ranma shrugged looking apologetic "sorry, if she doesn't wish it then you don't have the right to stand in the way." he chuckled continuing after them "how dare you disrespect your betters!?" genma yelled throwing a bucket of water at him. when they could see ranma again through the field that appeared he snorted at him "stupid fool, this suit cost more then your worth. don't you dare think you have the right to tell me what to do. you lost that right when you adopted my enemy as your son." he stood up and looked grimly at ukyo "you, ukyo kounji, are the fiancee of the son of saotome genma and the heir of his school. so that leaves me out of being your fiance."

ukyo snarled pulling her spatula "oh no you don't! i was betrothed to saotome ranma! your not getting out of it that easy!" she yelled attacking him. ranma stood patiently as ironman took her weapon "i do not recognize this engagement.  
you are engaged to the heir of the saotome school of anything goes martial arts. i am not that heir, so by persuing me you break that engagement by choice. we will return in two hours."

akane tossed her bag on the couch in their room "that went better then i thought it would." she murmured hugging him.  
he smiled kissing her "they were unnerved by the fact that we weren't acting the way they remember us acting." he said assuringly. kasumi smiled "yes they were shocked at how you handled happosai ranma."

tofu chuckled helping ranma out of the suit coat "ok, i was looking for something that looked real, did we have to hook me up to a muscle inhibiter?" he groaned letting him help with the shirt. he reached up and turned the thing off "oh man does that feel better!" he pulled the thing off and stretched "you can not believe how constricting that is! i felt like i was going to go crazy."

tofu smiled sitting down "are you going to challange happosai if he tries to reject the win?" he asked. ranma nodded "i can understand pop and soun cowtowing to the old freak, but i never thought mom would allow him to run their lives. notice that nabiki was no where to be found?"

kasumi nodded sadly "i hope shes alright." she murmured coming out of the bedroom with akane. ranma shuddered looking at her "were you modeling that after the super dogi?" he asked. she grinned nodding "oh poor ranma, afraid i'll beat you up again?" she teased. he shook his fist at her "thats not funny!"

ryoga and the others looked up from their sitting positions in the dojo when ranma and akane entered. "hey! i thought the super dogi was destroyed!?" genma exclaimed. ranma smirked pulling his gi closed over the straps holding the device to him "if i didn't know any better i'd think you were halfway intellegent. no this isn't the dogi, but akane liked the thing so much i had this one made for her. it looks a lot better on her then that old gi she wore. makes her beauty stand out no?"

kasumi smiled "i think living in america did her a lot of good." she agreed. tofu nodded sitting on the other side of the dojo with the captain and smiled when the couple joined him. he took a breath to say something when the door opened again and nabiki walked in. she blinked at ranma and akane on one side and their parents on the other. she smirked "i can see who thinks what." she mused walking over and sat next to kasumi. she hugged her sister "are you ok nabiki-chan?"

she smiled "i get by." she murmured calmly. kasumi looked worried "where are you staying?" she asked softly. nabiki patted her hand "don't worry oneechan, i'm doing better then i thought i would." she murmured assuringly. soun cleared his throat annoyed at the way his arrent daughters were ignoring the seriousness of the occation "can we please get to this?" he growled irritably. ranma looked grimly at him "it grieves me to see the taint that has disrupted your family tendo-san." he said sadly. soun didn't do anything but look at him "the taint was allowing someone of such an ambigous nature as you to corrupt the way of life my family enjoyed. if i had known how you would lead them astray i would have turned the both of you out the minute you were found out."

ranma bowed not rising to his insulting statement "i find it curious that i only fell in disfavor after you deemed me useless, ignoring the reason for my impairment." soun glared "i am thankful for your sacrifice but you should realize that in your condition you have become a poor choice for akane." he said trying to sound reasonable. genma nodded along with nodoka, to ranmas silent grief. he sighed "so i see. not unlike the sake bottle, you welcome my presence until you are done with me then my fate is to meekly let you disguard me as is reasonable. i guess i should be happy as with the bottle at the knowledge that i provided you with a cheap excitement before being used up."

soun glared angrily at him "you never were worthy of akane boy, the very fact that you tormented her with the various other women you flaunted in her face." ranma looked thoughtful "i will not answer this statement because i do not wish to hurt your daughters feeling by stating the obvious." he said inclining his head to the three tendo sisters. nabiki smirked "don't hold back on my account." kasumi sighed "mine either ranma, father is not my responsiblity anymore."

akane shrugged "i think i can tell what you were thinking ranma. dad is as much a blind fool as genma. i know you didn't wave them in my face, it was more like they pushed themselves between us. blind because no one seems to connect the fact that genma saotome is soully responsible for all those women, making it almost impossible for ranma to remove them without ruining his honor. you never bothered thinking about what it would mean if ranma just told the other girls to get lost. genma had already stolen ukyos dowry the day he left her behind, most times if he had told shampoo to go away she would refuse or try to harm me. or cologne would have done something horrible to ranma if he had rejected her out of hand. other then that, ranma did take care of the others, doing things he found compromising in order to save face to cover for the honorless actions of the man you see fit to forgive on one hand and on the other castigate ranma for the same thing. ranma had no hand in these things coming about and yet you thought it reasonable to blame him for the disgraceful thievery of his father, not even bothering to attached the blame where it belonged."

akane looked at them all with scorn plain on her face "i thought better of you auntie. letting a pair of blundering fools and their contemptable master decide who would be adopted as your new son. let me tell you a little about your new son. hibiki ryoga is a shiftless hate monger that uses ranma as a whiping boy to take the blame for his own failings and places it on another as a way to ignore his utter lack of redeemable features. in all the time we've known him he has constently shown his honorless nature in his hate for your true son. the first meeting we had with the pig was him attacking ranma when he wasn't looking.  
later that night he broke into our home and attacked him in his sleep."

akane sniffed in contempt at the anger on ryogas face "after that he used a curse he claims ranma had a hand in being aflicted with, after he realized ranma was the better person all around he again showed his gutter upbinging by tricking ranma into guarding his secret before using me to get back at him. again ranma was forced to do something that everyone damned him for in trying to save me from the swines questionable actions. i believe the pig i found was a normal pig while the whole time it was this contemptable bastards perverted attempts to make my family throw ranma out for honoring his engagement by trying to remove him from me. i just wish i had known, ranma was just trying to protect me from the honorless one when he came into my room. the way he always protected me. if any of you think i will allow you to marry me to this woman beater in respectable clothes you will find yourself alone with your stinking animals."

she crossed her arms glaring at them "the purpose of this challange is for ryogas claim, we are answering it honorably, despite the honorless means you used to force the move." ranma put a hand on her shoulder "you lay it on rather thick love." he murmured softly. she sniffed "i've never been one to withhold my opinion ranma, you know that"  
she answered. he nodded looking at them "this is an anything goes challange, the winner is the one left standing and conscious at the end of the match. no one will be allowed to interfere until one of them succeeds in knocking out the other with no outside help." he said warningly glaring at happosai who was glaring back "what makes you think you have the right to set the conditions of this challenge twerp?" he shouted. ranma looked at him calmly "because we called the challange, it was your right to name the location and time,  
it is our right to set conditions. we do not trust the good intentions of some here today."

nodoka nodded "it is there right." she said warningly glaring at happosai. ranma nodded "the purpose of this match is to challange this schools right to force its heir on akane. after she wins we will be leaving." he said firmly and akane nodded grimly. happosai laughed shortly "thats a laugh wimp, akane was a weakling before she left, its only been three months, even if you trained her none stop she couldn't hope to match ryogas carefully molded skills,  
something hes been using for years."

ranma shrugged none commitally "we shall see." he said calmly squeezing akanes hand in passing when she made a show of kissing him. nabiki chuckled "thats akane for you,  
blantent about her choice." ranma nodded watching ryoga closely, looking for the signs of happosais teachings. he frowned not seeing anything different and looked suspiciously around the room "something wrong?" ironman asked behind him.  
he nodded "i'm looking for their trap. ryoga isn't showing any signs of improvement of his skill, so if happosai hasn't trained him he must have a trick hidden somewhere to ensure ryoga wins."

he nodded "i'll scan the room." he murmured. ranma nodded gripping his cane as ryoga charged. ranma sat as still as he could, the only sign that he was unhappy with the fight was when ryoga managed to land a hit, his eye twitched and the tensing in his form made him shake slightly. he jumped lightly when tofu took ahold of his shoulders and rubbed them lightly "your going to break your back doing that." he whispered and ranma sighed loosening up and grinned watching akanes movements instead of ryogas.

he blinked after a minute when he realized that ryoga was slumped on the ground and akane was walking back over holding her side. he reached out and pulled her gently into his lap hissing as he felt her pain for a minute before it went away. tofu looked over at the shock on soun and genmas face seeing the small vortex surrounding ranma and akane "what your seeing right now is ranmas soul merging with akanes to heal her wounds. its partly how ranma trained her to fight. ranma is proud of the fact that she is his equal in the art."

genma looked excited "c- could that be used to heal the boy?" he asked hopefully. ranma opened his eyes "even if i could-" akane opened hers "-the insult to our very lives is too great to ever forgive-" she took a deep breath as ranma smirked "-lightly. you tried to take everything that mattered to us-" "-do to a heroic act-" "-and make small everything our two-" "-families worked so hard for. you cheapened yourselves-" "-and unforgivably alienated your children."

ranma slumped back into tofus hands as the cyclone burst. he worked at slowing his breathing and sat back up when akane took his hand and leaned into him. they turned as one and looked at their parents stonily. ranma cleared his throat "ryoga lost. do you except this loss honorably?" he demanded calmly. happosai hissed "we'll want a rematch." he said angrily. ranma nodded "it's your right to want one. but i'm afraid the outcome of this challenge is sealed. if akane is to be his wife it will be her choice. if you want your challange it will not be now, it will not be here. if you wish you may challenge me personally, in ten days akane and i are holding a wedding, you may challenge me there or never."

happosai nodded "we'll be there." he assured grimly.

ranma blinked as akane started kissing him passionately the minute the door to their suite closed making him stumble and fall back on the couch feeling his leg lock up on him "oh my." nabiki murmured coming back in the room.  
ranma looked at her with a pained look on his face, akanes kisses having moved to kissing and licking his chest "help"  
he pleaded feebly. it was nabikis loud cackling that brought the rest of them in the mainroom to blink at ranma protesting feebly as he tried to keep akane from stealing his pants.

"oh my!" kasumi exclaimed blushing. both of them looked up and they almost laughed at the difference in the looks on their faces, akane was annoyed at being interrupted and ranma looked like he'd gotten a last minute repreve. "look oneechan, i've wanted ranma in my bed since he took those bullets for me, looking at what that scumbag did to him scared me to death because i was sure ranma wasn't going to make it. i wanted him in my bed from the first day we came to tony-sensei but he resisted saying that we would dishonor ourselves if we didn't settle with our families first."

she let go of his bunched pants and put her hands gently on his washboard stomach "now he's been challenged to a serious battle with a man that has trounced him in almost every battle they've been in, that evil old man is not going to wait until the wedding day, he will either attack us before we leave or a few days after we get back, hoping to force the cripple into forfeiting the match, or hurting him enough to make it suicide if he does fight. you weren't there,  
happosai cowed cologne herself in that hospital room when auntie formally included him as the recognized master of the anything goes school."

she looked defiant "i want him first! everytime ranma went up against someone no one thought he could win against, i hurt the whole time he was gone. for all the enemies ranmas bested, happosai was the one that led most of them to us. i want at least one night of happiness before that monster tries to kill my ranma and force me to be ryogas slave. is that too much to ask?!" kasumi covered her mouth looking ready to cry for the pain in her sisters voice and shook her head "i wasn't going to stop you akane.... i was going to suggest you give ranma a chance to remove the inhibiter and maybe.... do it in your room."

akane blinked at her softly spoken request before looking down pouting "i'm sorry i yelled at you oneechan." she apologized softly. kasumi smiled hugging her "i understand your haste akane, your scared for your love." she said soothing her. after a minute of laying there watching, ranma started figiting "you know, i can't get up without your help." he murmured comfortingly. akane laughed explosively and bent over to kiss him softly "come on, make me feel like everythings right with the world." she said pulling him up strait and slapped the power switch on the device on his chest.

ranma groaned falling to one knee and winced twitching his shoulders "oh man!" he groaned pulled the inhibiter off and rubbed at his shoulder "talk about a mega cramp." he hissed and moaned when akane started kneading the tense muscles. she leaned close and finished pulling his shirt off and started rubbing harder "think maybe the inhibiter is hurting me?" he asked tofu. he smiled packing away the equipment "no, i think forcing it to test how much pressure it takes before your backbone snaps was hurting you. i was afraid ranma would have hurt himself if the fight had lasted longer then it did."

ranma stood up and rubbed at the back of his head "i couldn't help it, i sware it felt almost like every time he hit her he had hit me as well." he said blushing. tofu looked thoughtful "that would explain why she recovered from his strikes as fast as she did." he mused. ranma blinked "well its gotten so i unconsciously deminish the pain of a strike i take, allowing me to shrug off most things." he smirked weakly "its why i was able to pummel that bastard that shot me half to death after his gun ran out, i barely noticed the pain other then to note that i had been hurt."

she smiled hugging his arm "i could have sworn he would have had me a few times if it had hurt at all. it didn't start hurting until it was over." she purred sweetly kissing his shoulder. tofu smiled "i guess i should have realized, with the bond you have with each other you would be able to help dull each others pain if your close enough."

akane nodded pulling ranma in the direction of her room "don't expect us until morning." she said closing her door.  
nabiki chuckled "i see this has made akane switch tracks"  
she comented sitting down with the two. kasumi nodded smiling "yes, can you believe it? when all this time we worried of ranma trying something improper when it was akane we should have been worried of! shes tried to jump ranma four times since finding out that we were coming back here. she was worried that ryoga had trained hard under happosai and that she might not get a chance to know ranma... that way."

ranma blinked awake feeling a breeze over his arm and scanned the room, not even caring that his eyes were still closed. he blinked mentally seeing someone he didn't expect to find still in japan "cologne."

akane snapped awake instantly and glared at the old woman looking curiously at the two of them "i begin to see why shampoo isn't the wife for you." she mused looking closely at them. ranma sat up and frowned at her "what do you want cologne?" he asked coldly. she smiled "i hear you confounded your family's heir today." she chuckled. akane nodded "ranmas been training me since we left. we came back and challanged our parents right to decide who my husband would be. i made my choice and they would force another on me"  
she said bitterly. cologne nodded "that i see. i am very interested in finding out how what i see has come about"  
she murmured. ranma shrugged "akane and i are soul mates in almost every sense of the word. today during akanes fight i found i could bolster her chance by numbing any pain she took from my sitting position on the other side of the room."

she smiled "so there was interference from an outside source." she chuckled. ranma shook his head "to fight akane,  
is to fight me, to fight me is to fight akane. we are one of spirit. it is impossible to fight one without the other being dragged into the fight even if unconsciously, there for the rules were unbroken since akane went in with what they approved, one body. they didn't care much for the soul."

she nodded thinking about it "loophole." she agreed. akane layed back in the bed "is there something we can do for you?" she asked tiredly. cologne smirked "tough day." she chuckled. ranma nodded "ryoga was trying to hurt her today.  
he meant to hurt her for deserting him. we're both really tired." he said pointedly looking at the clock. she dismissed that "you do not have the chi of a cripple besides the way you moved at the dojo."

ranma frowned at her "tofus been working with me constently in the past few months, hoping to encourage the damaged flesh to heal by exercising other areas then just the physical." she nodded "i see you put your training to good use. i can barely tell the two of you apart." she comented.  
ranma nodded "can we continue this at a respectable hour? we really do need our sleep."

ranma sighed laying back down after she'd left and rapped his arms around akane when she rolled on top of him "what the hell does she want?" he kissed her forehead "it doesn't matter, we're going home as soon as captain says its safe"  
she looked up at him "you really think of tony-sans place as home now don't you?" she asked softly. he nodded "he is my family now. the family that was before tony turned their backs today unable to see their dishonor. it grieves me that your father stood with them so blindly. i thought better of him."

she sighed resting her head under his chin "please ranma, i do not want to speak of him. i was so ashamed of how he spoke of you." she said coldly. ranma curressed her back soothingly, then grinned when her hand started lightly stroking his manhood "i'm not going to fall asleep by myself love." she purred gripping his hardened member. he rumbled running his fingers between her legs and chuckled finding her already very wet "i think i can give you that help."

ranma blinked looking up from the mud she was packing in the bottom of the koi pond she was filling to smile at the japanese woman blinking at her "i thought this was ranmas project?" she asked in greeting. ranma chuckled "it is. those that know me find that i'm only a man when in dry atmospheres." she laughed hopping out and brushed some of the mud off her hands "your doing a good job with this ranma"  
he looked up and smirked at charles "hello again sensei charles. come to see if i'm all better?" she asked lifting a tank of mud two times her size and poured it into the pit "i see you've adjusted to your new found strengths." he murmured amused.

ranma smirked moving about the hole as she poured "what,  
this? hell, whats a few tons between friends?" she asked grinning. he chuckled "you know, i know someone who might be able to help you with that curse." he mentioned. ranma finished emptying the tank and looked at him "i used to think curing my curse was the most importent thing to me.  
now i begin to see that i am a better man because i'm a woman."

he smiled "i understand." he said humoriously. ranma smirked at him "i get the feeling you really do, strange." she looked up and blinked as akane hung the waterhose over her head and let it wash her clean. she blinked letting akane finish scrubbing the mud off before arching an eye brow at her "i get the feeling you enjoyed that." she remarked smirking. she grinned "how can i help but want to touch you?" she asked smiling. ranma grinned "let me change and we'll fill the pond."

when ranma came back out he was wearing a pair of shorts and a muscle shirt "alright, lets do it." he said walking over to a larger tank and grunted picking it up and walked back over to the pond. he chuckled softly setting it into the pit and popped three locks about its frame and pulled up on the handle on the top. they blinked as the top and sides came away and a huge amount of water flowed out into the pond filling it halfway.

he took ahold of it and pulled up the bottom by the rods holding it to the rest of the frame. he chuckled gently pushing the small fish on it back into the pond "you had fish in the tank?" charles asked surprised. ranma nodded "for the last two days. i want them afjusted to the water before putting them into the pit." he murmured closing the tank and stacked it next to the one he moved to pick up.  
"another one? aren't you afraid of over taxing the ecosystem?" he asked. ranma smiled "naw. this is a big pond,  
and the bottom is loaded down with algae and food growing things."

after he'd emptied the second one ranma smiled looking around the garden and hugged akane "i think it looks better then the one at the dojo." he mused. she nodded kissing him "thats because we built it together."

"oh, i can't wait for this to start!" akane murmured worrying at her fingernails as she paced the room, holding the bottom of her gown up so she doesn't hurt the thing.  
kasumi made a soft scolding sound as she stopped her and went back to fixing her hair "will you please calm down!  
the groom is the one thats supposed to be nervous!" she said lightly reproving. akane nodded ringing her hands "i know,  
its just that... i'm afraid someones going to show up and ruin it like last time!"

kasumi hugged her slightly smiling "hey! its ok! you have all your nice friends here that won't let anything interfere in this!" she said soothingly. both of them looked up hearing a soft chuckle and smiled at nabiki "sis!" they exclaimed together happily. nabiki smiled happily as she carefully hugged akane then hugged kasumi grinning "i see you've started without me." she chuckled holding up a box "figured you might need this." she murmured handling it to kasumi. she gasped opening it "mothers vail!" she breathed in awe. akane looked reverently at it "its beautiful." she whispered. nabiki nodded looking as fondly at it as they were "i took it from the house before coming out here, dad was raving when i went back a few days ago, blathering about how we deserted him."

akane jumped a bit as she let kasumi place it on her head "oh i'm just so excited! i'm going to be mrs saotome ranma in less then two hours, i feel kind of sick." she said down and took a few deep breaths before smiling sunnily at her sisters "i'm ok, ranmas ok, this is going to work."

ranma opened his eyes and blinked at tofu and tony when they walked into the room "we're almost ready, how are you holding up?" tony asked squeezing his shoulder. ranma smiled "i'm holding up better then i did last time." he said smirking. "what happened last time?" he asked. ranma smirked "they clubbed me over the head and trussed me up in the panguin suit, woke up about an hour before people started throwing explosives."

he blinked at him for a minute before nodding "i'll make sure those that need to know are told." he murmured leaving the room. tofu smiled straitening his tie "i'm sure this will turn out alright. you have so many things in your favor this time, for one, you willingly agreed."

ranma gulped standing at the head of the aisle ahead of the rediculiously large crowd of people that had wanted to be at the wedding, people they had met since coming here as well as their friends and others that wished to meet them. he adjusted his collar again and looked at tony next to him like he was in pain. he smiled fixing it "its nothing to be afraid of! its only marrage, you want to marry her right"  
he asked smiling. ranma nodded looking around nerviously "yes, yes i do, i really do, its just.... very few things like this go right for us. someones going to pop in and attack us i just know it." he looked around at the crowd suspiciously for signs of evil.

tony chuckled patting him on the back "what could get past all these people ranma? look around you! almost every member of all the super hero groups in greater new york is here. what could they do?" he asked. he looked at him "probably spike the drinks, or poison the food, or worse,  
all of my worst enemies will show up and nuke the place"  
tony bigsweated "its... ok ranma. but just in case, we should start this soon." he motioned to brodie standing to the side and whispered softly to him. he blinked at him the ran off to do what he suggested quickly. tony smiled coming back "the defence systems are now on."

ranma closed his eyes and enhaled deeply a few times then almost jumped out of his skin hearing the first stanza of the bridal march. he looked up and his knees went weak at the sight before him. he blinked at akane in utter astonishment and awe "is that akane?" tony exclaimed softly seeing her.  
ranma blinked realizing that he was keeping him steady on his feet. he shook himself and stood firmly and smiled dazzled at akane as she got up to them. she smiled back, a slight blush tinting her cheeks, as she felt lightning course through her at the sight of him in the suit they'd had made.

ranma shakily took her hand as they turned to the preacher and he smiled in sympathy at the dazed look on his face "we are gathered her today, to unite these two, in holy matrimony." ranma blinked looking around the area with his senses figuring he would drone on for a while. he jumped when akane elbowed his ribs and he blinked looking at the preacher as he looked questioningly back. he looked at akane and she rolled her eyes "say i do."

he nodded smiling weakly "i do." the preacher smiled at him in understanding.

ranma shook his head not understanding as he looked dumbfounded at the cake he and akane were in front of "whats wrong?" she asked smiling indulgently at him. he frowned "why haven't they attacked yet?! things are just too perfect for someone not trying to ruin it!" he explained looking stressed out. she took ahold of his head and looked him in the eyes "ranma, right now, your the only one that is ruining this. can't you just except that for once, no ones trying to crash the party?" she asked pleadingly.  
ranma rubbed at his hair for a minute before sighing "your right, its just so... alien to me! it went right!" he looked up hearing chuckles and blinked at those that were closest to them "if it makes you feel a little better, the bakers truck broke down a few minutes from here and ironman had to go get it for it to be here on time." tony laughed. ranma blinked at that for a minute then smiled "truth be told, that does make me feel better." he murmured and let akane guide the hand he held the knife in towards the cake.

ranma let his breath out as he looked at the cake coming towards his mouth and stopped the hand looking suspiciously at the yellow look to the cake. he started to point it out when akane pushed it in his face and he swallowed in surprise. ranma blinked looking at the cake on her hands and stopped her when she started to move in to clean the cake off his face. he picked up the peice she had set down and scowled narrow eyed at the splotches of yellow "this was a vanilla cake." he muttered before crumpling to his knees already passed out. akane cried out in shock catching him as tony, after a shocked second pulled out a remote and hit the button on it and sensors all over the house flicked on, right away an alarm went off. brodie looked up and blinked at all of the helping hands as kasumi quickly cleaned the cake of ranmas face "might lessen what ever it is." she whispered as they hurried him off. tofu looked suspiciously at the cake for a minute before cutting into it and tapped tony on the shoulder "its only in the part they intended to cut into, we need to find the ones that placed the cake." he showed them the normal white cake as the yellow stuff stained it.

kasumi hurried into the room they had put ranma in and winced seeing that they were pumping his stomach "he tried to warn me!" akane wailed suddenly clinging to her. she hugged her as she watched the monitors "it'll be alright akane, he didn't take in much of it and they've already found out what was put in the cake." she soothed. akane laughed weekly through her tears "you know, this was why we chose a white cake!" she laughed sobbed. tony smiled softly and rubbed her arm soothingly "we didn't find anyone even though the alarms went off a few times." brodie said coming into the room. akane snarled "then it was happosai! he's the only one we know that uses invisability techniques, i'm going to kill him!"

they looked up when tofu came back into the room looking grim "we were lucky." he said shortly "this stuff is nasty, it causes heart arrest in normal people, in ranma it would send him into a wheel chair to keep him from giving himself a heart attack. i'd say ranma was right, the old man wants to make sure ranma is in no condition to survive fighting him." tony punched the table "must have been the reason the bakers truck broke down." he growled. akane patted his arm "we couldn't have known, we never thought they would be dishonorable enough to try to do something like this."

"will he be ok?" tony asked tofu. he nodded smiling assuringly "i figured something like this might happen, i gave him something that would make his system lock up the instent a toxin entered his body, hense the reason he passed out right away. now that its out of his stomach he'll wake up soon." they blinked in shock at him "your the reason he passed out." brodie said dumbly. he smiled nodding "pretty much, he asked me to look into measures to counteract poisons, if akane had tasted it she would have passed out too." they nodded understanding "covering all the bases."

after twenty minutes ranma woke up grimacing bitterly "remind me never to get that kind of cake again. feel like someone took a vaccum and shoved it down my throat." he grumbled rubbing his stomach wincingly. tofu chuckled "thats because we did shove a vaccium down your throat." he said offering him a glass of some murky liquid. he nodded downing it quickly and shuddered at the taste "i was going to warn you." he chuckled. ranma nodded "i figured it would taste bad thats why i took it fast. have they presented the challenge yet?" he asked looking at tony who came back into the room. he nodded "just now, they're asking for akane, not you."

ranma nodded smirking wanly at his anger "their not even trying to deny what they did." akane snarled starting to stomp out of the room when ranma caught her and smiled kissing her deeply. she smiled dreamily when it was over "now lets not let these fools ruin such a beautiful dress,  
the rules are reversed, we call the time of the challenge.  
lets get changed."

ranma smirked looking at the sparse chest plate made of shiny silverish metal tony brought him "its a mock up of the inhibitor thats been armored, giving you the illusion of being impaired, and its rather nice looking." he smiled tapping a few keys of the small keypad on the left side of the chest and three lights below it brightened.  
"neat." he chuckled. akane nodded smiling as she rubbed at the parts of his chest and back not covered with the strange suit "its the shield against water basically." he added smirking. ranma nodded standing strait as he looked at himself in the mirror "and with this no one will be able to tell i don't need it." he chuckled looking up at captain america and someone that had shocked him when he first met him "by odin you look almost like one of fathers mystical warriors."

ranma smirked holding his arms up to show them the bracers akane had made him "thanks i think, what are they doing"  
thor smirked "the one in yellow has a strong punch, but he is only a mortal compared to thors might." ranma nodded standing strait and flashed them a dazzling smile "i guess that means i have to go out there." they nodded letting him go first, smirking at the impressed looks on the faces of the ones they passed "are you sure he's not one of your robots stark?" spiderman asked from his perch on the wall leading out into the vestibule they had had the wedding in.  
stark chuckled "not as far as i remember, this is just a shiny version of the one he wore when you first met him."

ranma looked grimly at the shock on the faces of the rest of the arrent family "your not even our boy anymore are you"  
genma demanded in contempt. ranma smiled at them "what you mean this? all this is to monitor my vital signs, armored a bit to make sure you don't damage it in some last minute gutter tactic. but then again your first dishonorable action was nasty enough to make you think it uneeded." genma and ryouga snarled moving to attack him when happosai waved them off "do you really think a peice of shiny metal is going to stop us?!" he cackled. ranma didn't answer "you will pay for daring to steal from the anything goes school cripple."

ranma crossed his arms waiting for his first move when he suddenly dove to the side sensing the attack coming from above. he bounced to his feet to face his opponent and blinked at a grim looking taro "i didn't want to do this on your wedding day fem-boy, but the letch said he would give me what i want if i crush you today." he shouted launching himself after him. ranma somersaulted over the man as the ground where the hit landed exploded, ranma swayed to the side missing his recover attack and rapidly bounced away from the flurry of punches and kicks he threw, rarely letting one land. he hissed in anger suddenly as something hit him from behind making the shoulder of his monitor explode sending him to his knees. ranma brought his arms up and crossed them in a defencive move as taro struck and gritted his teeth as the man was blasted away from him by the attack.

ranma stumbled to his feet trying to look at the damage done the unit as the smoke cleared from the trench he dug as the attack ground taro through it. he snarled pulling loose the burned remains of one of ryougas bandanas. he snarled turning to attack the lost boy when his leg gave out on him and he reached back suddenly feeling the wound, wincing when he pulled the bloody peice of cloth out of the wound "you honorless bastard!!!" akane screamed at him. he snarled twirling more of them "its time we got serious about this ranma, one of us isn't leaving here alive!" he shouted throwing his weapons at the feet of those that tried to stop him as he launched himself at the still kneeling martial artist "you'll pay for taking akane from me!" he shouted swinging his umbrella with all his might. ranma deflected it with his arm as he jumped away and winced when it went numb on him. he gritted his teeth whipping his leg around and hit him in the side of the face like a ton of bricks using his enjured leg. ryouga landed a few feet from him but already he had to deal with their fathers attacking. ranma snorted pummeling both of them in seconds then grunted as taros sudden punch landed in the middle of his chest plate.  
ranma groaned flipping off his back and back to his feet to regard his attackers.

ryouga was bleeding from his nose and mouth as well as a cut along the side of his right eye, taro looked like he'd been singed. "ha! give up boy!" happosai cackled from where he was sitting with nodoka who looked like she was in pain.  
ranma stood strait slowly and smirked wiping a little blood from his lip "you could bring in saffron himself and i wouldn't give in to a man without honor." he ran his eyes over taro and nodoka "you brand yourself tainted by following that man. its a taint i still suffer from even though it was genma that followed him. stay with him long enough, you become like him, or like his lackies over there." he waved to genma and soun who were waking up "genmas a prime example of his corruptable evil and you don't know half the things he did during our training trip trying to please that old demon."

he looked at them hard for a minute "do you dare force me to take this seriously?" he asked them crossing his arms. when the two moved to continue attacking he tensed up bending almost double as he crouched down. he growled low in his throw starting to glow slowly. they blinked looking surprised at the way he clutched at himself then jumped as his pigtail burst in a rain of hair, the growl getting louder. ranmas leg slid to the side a bit as he slowly lowered his hands to the ground and snarled loudly at them.  
they moved back a little uncertain as the power started growing brighter, starting to form about him. ranma snarled again spreading his fingers apart like claws and suddenly yowled loudly. suddenly, the flair of light solidified about him forming into a light blue body of a spectral feline.

ranma stood up slowly as a flickering ghostly tail started flicking about, his real body totally covered by the form.  
he raised his hands and brillient white claws flashed out from his fingers. he snarled at them crossing his arms. the two blanched slightly looking at their enemy for a moment before they were soaked with water "do you want your new name or not boy?!" happosai yelled at the monster. he roared at happosai before looking at the cat man standing silently in front of him. he roared at him in challenge lunging forward. ranma darted in like a flicker of light and solidly blocked the blow of his monsterous fist causing ki to burst from the impact burning him.

taro roared moving back looking at his smoking hand and grunted as the cat man pounced on him. ranma landed and dug his claws into his back and landed two devistating blows into the monsters head causing ki to flair briefly from the strikes. he flipped away from him as he started crashing to the ground and watched him for a minute. he hissed whiping about as a ki blast burst off of an invisable shield a few inches from him and he regarded happosai through redly glowing eyes "fancy trick boy." he shouted suddenly flinging sticks of dinamite at him. ranma flashed forward and the fuses fluttered about as they burned, no longer connected to their explosives. ranma darted at the letch and past him as he flashed out with his pipe. ranma smashed into him from behind and sent him tumbling into taros still frame. he screamed as ranma was suddenly there and sheathed his claws into his knee.

ranma hissed holding his claws close to the mans face "give taro his name now." he purred stalling out taros groggy attack with a wave of his claws. happosai stuttered out a rather normal name and ranma watched taros eyes narrow eyed, demandingly. taro nodded slowly and ranma moved away from him he flicked his hand at the sky and he nodded standing unsteadily and staggered a few feet. he shook himself before jumping into the air and flew out of sight.  
ranma turned back to the meuling old man. he pulled his claws from his leg snatching him up and tossed him at genma making him grunt as the impact knocked him on his back "you lost." he hissed simply before walking over to the crowd of grimly watching heros. he crouched down in front of akane. he purred softly nuzzling her shoulder and she giggled.

he roared suddenly as he was knocked past her, the cat bursting from ranma who fell limply to the ground. akane screamed throwing herself at ryouga who'd thrown the umbrella. ryouga whirled around and smashed his fist into her shoulder making her scream in pain as she fell to the ground clutching at it. "you bastard!" tony shouted. before any of the enraged heros could do anything akane plunged the sword she was suddenly holding deeply into his chest.

ranma woke up slowly feeling sore all over and voiced his state in a groan. he looking and blinked seeing tony and tofu lean over him with kasumi and nabiki beside them. he blinked for a minute then tried to sit up "wheres... akane"  
he hissed in pain as his back protested the movement. "shes sleeping ranma." tony said comfortingly. he nodded "where"  
he asked looking around. tony bit his lip "in the reconstruction tank." ranma froze feeling chilled "wh-  
what...?!" he breathed afraid. tony looked ashamed "ryouga shattered her collar bone ranma. we had to put her to sleep so it would stop hurting." tofu said quietly. ranma gapped at him in horror then rage "ryouga....!" he snarled clinching his fist. "is dead." nabiki said jolting him out of his anger. they nodded "akane punched a katana through his breast bone. he died a few minute later." tofu explained. ranma blinked dumbfounded for a minute before nodding sharply "then its over." he said and started to get out of the bed. they protested moving to restrain him when he frowned at them "i want to see akane."

ranma stumbled over to the tank of greenish liquid akane was floating in and touched the glass looking panickedly at the pain still on her face "she's in pain!" he shouted. tony shook his head pulling him back from the stairs leading to the top of the tank "no, its just the expression she had on her face when she fell asleep, i assure you she's in no pain." ranma looked back up at her and whimpered softly running his fingers down the glass. tofu gripped his shoulder comfortingly "she's alright ranma." he said worriedly looking at akanes sisters. ranma glared at him "but is the baby?!" he demanded harshly pulling away from them and hurried up the stairs "baby?! what baby?!?" kasumi gasped. ranma looked at her crying "its only three days old,  
i didn't want her fighting because the baby would die!"

they blinked looking up from they're shock when ranma jumped down into the tank and rapped his arms around akane. he looked at them and blue fire flaired brighting from his eyes and around them. he closed his eyes and the green gel started to swirl around them frantically "shit boss! the energy readings for that tank are off the scale!" brodie hissed in shock as the stuff started to froth about and bubble. they jumped as the tank flashed brightly for a few seconds before they could see them again. they jumped seeing ranma falling to the bottom of the tank unconscious as akane tried to hold him up "raise the grill." tony said hurrying up the stairs alongside tofu. when they got up there they helped akane pull ranmas head above the top of the gel and he enhaled in a ragged breath moving about weakly "was that necessary ranma?" tofu asked him when he opened his eyes slowly. ranma snorted at him "no way was i going to let my wife hurt for long on our wedding day." he said softly.  
akane snorted at him pulling him close "what happened? all i remember is blinding pain then waking up just now." 


End file.
